Politics edition. Most of you know that I'm a politics junkie. With the sad, sad news about Ted Kennedy, the Senator from Massachusetts, I thought I'd list 10 things I'm currently thinking about that are politics related.

1. Ted Kennedy is a great senator. I'm too young to remember the time when he was accused of not being a great man, though my mother has told me about it. As a liberal democrat, though, I applaud him. He has championed for many issues I hold near and dear.

2. I don't think I'll ever get over my utter dislike for our current president. I have a "Bush Lied" sticker on my back window and I'm not sure I'll ever remove it.

3. I think Geraldine Ferraro is full of crap.

4. I wish Hillary Clinton would graciously step aside. She could do so with dignity and it could unite the Democrats in a way that, I think, is desperately needed.

6. Fine - I also have a wee little crush on Keith Olbermann. That crush started many years ago when he hosted the Big Show on ESPN. Now focusing on news and politics has made him much hotter.

7. I hope my state once again is key in deciding the presidential election, only THIS YEAR, I'd really love to have it swing the same direction as my vote!

8. My brother in law stands as far right as I do left, but we are able to discuss politics without yelling and/or getting mad at each other. I wish more people were like that.

9. If you don't vote, you don't get to complain.

10. Booger knows who the democratic candidates are and who I am voting for. She's quite young to express an interest, so she likes Barack Obama because I do. Once the national campaign begins, she'll learn who John McCain is. I hope she grows up to be interested, informed and active.

How do you feel about politics? Do you talk about it with your friends over lunch or is it off-limits? Many of my conversations with friends at least touch on politics, but I'm pretty sure we're not the norm.

Pure random today, friends. I hope you are all well. I miss you terribly.

1. I was up until after 11 playing Chinese checkers with 2 of my buddies. Online. IM'ing and playing Chinese checkers while lying in bed was incredibly relaxing. I miss my buddy who's on the other side of the world, but I miss him a little bit less when he's kicking my ass in Chinese checkers.

3. I have new readers!!! Many new readers leaving wonderfully kind comments. I'm working my way over to your blogs, I promise. Thank you for coming. Please stay awhile, won't you?

4. I started my new job and am adjusting to less online time. I sort of miss hanging out in my jammies all day. But I'm not going to miss not making any money, you know?

5. Booger got a new bike today. The riding without training wheels started. It went better than expected, but there's still so far to go. Any hints other than nail biting? Cause that's what I'm doing.

6. You know what I missed about having a real office job? Getting to wear my cool shoes. It's like Christmas looking through all the shoe boxes.

7. I start school in a few weeks and am so excited.....I miss it. I'm such a nerd!

8. I saw a dark green Prius on the way home today. It's the first non-silver one I think I've ever seen in real life. Isn't that odd? Do the silver ones get even better gas mileage?

9. I can't even explain how much I HATE it when the news media declares an election winner with 0% of precincts reporting. I know they're rarely wrong, but really? You can't wait until at least some of the votes are actually, you know, counted? Sheesh.

10. My trunk still stinks. Any suggestions for removing rotten milk from trunk carpet? Yes, the thought of buying a new car has crossed my mind. :-)

Sunday will be the 1 year anniversary of losing my job. So many things have happened in this year. I learned quite a bit about myself and the people in my life. For today's list, I think I'd like to talk about the people who helped me get through this year. Now, please....there's only room for 10, so if I've left you out, it's only because I ran out of space, not because I don't love you.

1. R - of course. He's my everything.2. Ness - we live 2 hours apart, but I talk to her usually twice a day. She knows me like few do and knows all of my quirks, even the ones I don't admit to having.3. J - my buddy who moved halfway across the world a couple weeks ago to attend med school. Our friendship is an unlikely one, yet, it is there and a great source of happiness in my life.4. J - the other one. He sat with me during R's surgery and simply radiated the calm that I so desperately needed. He is quiet most of the time, but possesses a wicked sense of humor and makes me laugh every single time we speak.5. D - he ran the half marathon with Roy because I asked him to. Just that simple. Because I asked him to. He's the guy you call when you can't call anyone else. He has such an aura of positive energy that he practically lights up the room when he enters it.6. M - oh, M. She and I have become very close. She's the wife of the #4 J and I simply can't imagine how we've not been friends our whole lives because it sure feels like it.7. Mye-buddies - these wonderful, powerful women have encouraged me to write, to tell my story, to share my sense of humor. We exchange powerful energy....the kind you need to live....and yet, they've never seen my face. I care about these women and they care about me and that is something I don't take for granted.8. My nieces and pseudo nieces - there are 7 of them and they bring such light to my life. As they grow older and become more independent, I'm continually astounded with the level of trust they have with me. I'm thankful that I can be a source of advice for them and, in turn, they always always make me smile.9. Booger - without this spirited 6 year old, my life would simply be black and white and all kinds of dull. She brings the color into it and I swear to make sure she knows it every single day.10. Me - this may sound shallow and self -absorbed, but I promise you it is not meant to be. I surprised myself this year. I have much more control over my life than I once thought. I also learned this year if I want to make something happen, I have the power to do it. I am strong. I am intelligent. I am a fierce and loyal friend. I am a mother. A wife. A daughter. I am a success and damn it feels really good to be able to say that and actually believe it!

I used to love the Where's Waldo books. I think I still have a few...wonder if Booger would like them? Anyway, yesterday, I cleaned out the trunk of my car. I'm not proud of what a mess it was. Over the winter, my car became quite cluttered with all sorts of things. I was still working for Large Retail store and had to wear black shoes to work. I never found the perfect pair for work. I had 3 hour shift shoes, 5 hour shift shoes and 8 hour shift shoes. I had some shoes that I would wear to and from hoping they would last longer than 20 minutes because damnit, they were cute (they never did). All of these shoes are fine for me to wear out and about. There's just something about standing in the same spot on concrete that make 99% of my shoes unbearable. So, my trunk held 3 pair of black shoes and a stray pair of tennies.

Since I don't like to drive wearing a coat, there were a few coats back there, too. Including my cute red vest that I spent too much time searching the house for. A basket of scrapbook stuff for the class I was supposed to teach, some things I need to return to various stores, a stray bag of popcorn from Target and the grossest thing ever. I found a little bottle of chocolate milk from a happy meal tucked away in the corner. It was so rotten that the seal had burst from the gases inside the bottle. The smell was enough to knock me over. I cleaned and sprayed and cleaned again....the whole trunk smells like rotten milk. It's disgusting.

I found the camera charger whose absence this weekend caused R and to I to say not very nice things to each other.

There was a scarf, a hat and a pair of gloves. A 5 subject notebook. A dress I purchased for Booger for $3, then promptly forgot about because it was buried under all the rubble.

Oh, there was a book bag, 3 reusable grocery bags, and an ice scraper. A shovel and a flashlight. What? You don't carry a shovel in your car? Well, you'll be sorry if you ever get stuck in the snow. The obligatory emergency roadside kit with jumper cables, though I'm not entirely sure how to hook them up without shocking the hell out of myself.

3 summertime floor mats, a few empty 20oz bottles of Diet Coke, a clipboard, my i-pod headphones, and a few empty french fry bags.

It's clean now. All that remains is the shovel, flashlight, roadside kit, the reusable grocery bags and the stench. Oh my god, the stench.

Hey there! How've you been? I have missed you terribly. I'll be catching up on reading, so watch for comments that are probably too old to be relevant to whatever you had going on. Except this: Kizz, did you email him yet?

I'm still waiting for one official grade, but I'm confident enough (mostly) to talk about it. I swear on all that is Holy that I do not mean to cross the Karma Gods.....but I've seen the grade on paper, just need to see in on the computer....please...post it soon. Amen.

Okay, so. Finals. Let me start by saying I had an A locked up in Psych barring some catastrophic final grade. Each of my classes had about a 50 point allowance before you'd get a B. Going into the Psych final, I was only down 7 points for the semester. Yes, I know. Nerd. The final was 100 questions, each worth 2 points. 100 multiple choice questions takes much longer to answer than you might think. It was open book, and as is my history with open book exams, it was hard. I missed only 5, so that's 10 points. So, in Psych - I nailed an A by a large margin. I shall only brag briefly, but believe me friends, there will be bragging. It is selfish, I know, but I have worked HARD for these grades, so yes.....there will be bragging. I might brag all weekend in fact. I'm sure you all guessed I'd get an A in Psych....crazy knows crazy!

Anatomy & Physiology was another story. I had a bad week in A&P a few weeks ago and scored horribly on an exam in both lab and lecture. This put me way too close to a B going into finals. We had both a lab and lecture final. Our lecture professor really enjoyed our class and agreed to meet for a last-ditch study effort the night before the final. This helped me so much that I, uh, aced the lecture final. Yes, 100%! Can you effing believe it? I still can't. It makes me smile just thinking of it. The professor had a key up front so we could take a quick look to see how we did since many of us were heading straight into our lab final. Looking at the key is how I know I scored a hundred....this is the official score I'm waiting for. Anyway, that really helped calm me down heading into the lab final because I knew I had about 15 points to give in that final and still pull out an A.

The A&P lab final is known as the bone test. It sucks ass. Basically, we learn all the bones in the body and the parts of said bones. 200+bones and terms. Also, we learn them out of context...off the skeleton if you will. We enter the room with a piece of paper numbered 1-40 and work our way around the stations writing down what each is. It could be the whole bone - Humerus. It could be a feature of the bone - Anatomical neck of Humerus. You need to know it and the whole wording as it is in our text. There is no word bank, no multiple choice. Just you, the bone, and a blank piece of paper. It's totally mental and totally designed to be that way. Let's not fool ourselves, it's a weed-out class. It's the first science class you take for any of the science/health fields and if you can't cut this one, there's no use trying something more advanced.

I was a nervous wreck entering that room. I didn't think I could pull the names out of thin air. I knew them....or at least most of them....but was not at all confident that I could do it without a word bank. We entered the room and were told to pick a spot. I found one I knew so that I could start off positively. As we moved around the room, I realized that I really did know them! Holy crap, I was doing it!!! I only missed 4 out of 40!!!! I was so proud of myself I didn't stop smiling the whole day!

I got accepted into the RN program at my school, so I won't have to transfer! I have to submit a re-eval request in the fall for an earlier admission date, but holy hell, just to get accepted is a huge step in the right direction!

Oh, and today? I got a job!

Holy hell, it's been a good week! I'll be catching up on your blogs now....hope you all had a good week as well.